From ancient rituals of river worship to modern struggles over water rights, human cultures have been often shaped by our complex relationship with water – as sustenance, boundary, threat, or sacred entity. In the contemporary world, as rising ocean levels, droughts, and changing precipitation patterns disrupt human societies worldwide, emotional bonds with water are being transformed by climate crisis. This conference will explore how literature has captured these shifting affective responses to water in any literary genres, fiction and non-fiction, from any historical and geocultural areas, such as classical, medieval and modern literatures, Nordic and global.
Our keynote speakers at the conference are:
- Tarek El-Ariss, James Wright Professor and Chair of Middle Eastern Studies at Dartmouth College,
- Ellen Marie Krefting, Professor of The History of Ideas in the Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas at the University of Oslo,
- Victoria Young, Kawashima Associate Professor in Japanese Literature and Culture in the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Cambridge,
- Marilina Cesario, Professor of English (specializing on Old English, Middle English, and Latin) at Queen’s University, Belfast.
Our keynote speaker at the artistic session is:
- Andri Magnason, Icelandic writer and documentary film director; the author of On Time and Water, and other poetry, fiction, non fiction and science fiction.
Important information
Find the program here (PDF). For more details regarding the organisers, program, and abstracts, see the program website.
The lectures are open for everyone, but we ask that you register your interest before August 20th.